Romanians in fightings in Afganisthan and Irak

I presume we shall increase our presence in Afghanistan. Things agravated a little lately there.

Indeed! So, instead of having soldiers in two countries (I leave aside the "off-topic" Kosovo ) we'll have more in one country, that's your point?
A question, undoubtedly rhetorical as far as it concerns the military authorities in charge there: wouldn't one change the approach if there are no results? Shouldn't international forces do different things? And perhaps the most important question: should Afghanistan remain a single state?

Maybe a european-style "soft ower" approach would be better than the american hard power approach, but at the time the americans call the shots, the europeans are just making the minimal comitment requested from them.
Truth is that afghans can not be conquested by force, hey demonstrated this so many times. Finnaly, the coalition will have to leave, just like the russians and british and others did...
But on the other side we must fullfill our obligations. After 9/11 the americans invoked the common defence clause from the NATO countries, and we are now NATO. We asked for it...
On the other hand, sending several hundreds in Afghanistan is better than keeping a full army prepared at the eastern borders..

http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=de...20090810-501478

"These kinds of missions will take place in an interval of approximately 30-40 years"...

Seems we`re there to stay.

This post has been edited by Hadrian on August 11, 2009 10:47 am

It was suicide, and it was first Romanian killed in Iraq.

Captain Petre Tiberius, who was KIA in Afghanistan in 4 April 2009, was part of Battalion 1 Vulturii Targu Mures. Intersting, they were part of a mission of "seek and destroy", side by side with American Delta Force.

See bellow:

http://www.realitatea.net/video_771476_mil...ani_515896.html

One soldier killed, one seriously wounded in Afghanistan:

http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?issue=4...=20100224-12562

Can anyone enlighten me as to why the Humvee is preferred to our older recon TABs? I don't think it offers better protection to IEDs or does it?

Everything depends on the dimension of IED. There are IEDs capable to destroy an Abramas tank, made from great calibre artilery shells.

This IED was not too big - just one dead (at the hospital) and one badly injured out of 5 in the Humvee. The casualities would have been less severe if a TAB - or even better, a Piranha would have been in its place.

Victor, my speculation is that the Humvee is used because it's more reliable and cheaper to operate than the TABs. Anyway, it is possible that the convoy was made up of different vehicle types (mixed TAB + Humvee) for tactical or operational reasons.

Anybody know the current status of the Piranhas? last time I checked 6 were in Afghanistan, exactly at Lagman base since September 2008

This post has been edited by Vici on February 24, 2010 04:00 pm

Posibly the Humvees have add-on armor. The TAB`s only protect against 7,62 caliber bullets, nothing more. And use more fuel. The TAB`s could anyway be uparmored with cage armor (against RPG), titan plates under driver`s place, and wheels filled with water. Than they would be better than a Humvee.

The Humvees used over there are definitely armored. Even the MoD communique mentioned "armoured vehicle". I don't know if this armour is superior to the TAB or not, but I believe it's largely in the same category.

But this is not all about the brute resistance of the armor, its position relative to and distance from the explosive charge is also important. The Humvee has a perfectly flat bottom relatively close to the ground, while the TAB's and Piranhas have an upwards sloped armour on the sides, while the bottom is higher than on the Humvee.

Maybe it was just a "light patrol" on Humvee, on highway Kandahar-Kabul.

http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/scrisoare-...tan-900824.html

Death toll for Afghanistan is up at 19 now (14 of them due to IED blasts) and 56 wounded.

Romanians in firefights with talibans

http://www.jurnalul.ro/observator/afganist...ideo-598170.htm